Quittintime: TAVERN OUTCASTS CHECK IN:

Taunton isn't making any money off BT bec they've only approached it as sellers, not as users.

Their software automatically hampers at least 15% of non-IE users, the search is nearly unusable, and the folders on forum suggestions and similar are essentially ignored. We've grown accustomed to hearing "We can't do that" when we suggest beneficial changes to the format.

They add a layer of hassle by requiring registration to even READ the forums, thereby eliminating another potential group of customers who aren't willing to buy a pig in a poke. How many customers are willing to be frisked to enter a store?

The forums aren't searchable by Google, which would bring people to Taunton, get 'em helped and make them feel grateful enough to buy a book or video, in contrast to a place like Garden Web for instance. It's no wonder BT has become an insular clubhouse, but i don't buy that the Tavern is responsible for that.

Taunton could get a great deal of content for free if they encouraged net publishing by their forum members. Ian and i worked pretty hard on that floor-sanding tutorial, which Taunton has deleted. Basswood or DougU put up a video on coping with a small grinder. (Thanks, boys!) This sort of on-the-fly mini-tutorial should be encouraged like mad to bring customers coming back for more while costing Taunton NOTHING, yet Taunton has instead become famous for re-working previously published material like some cover band from the 80s.

So that's the carrot end of things. Now the stick...

There is no moderation to keep serious threads from becoming joke threads for the regulars, let alone to keep the Tavern civil. My recent thread on the electronics for a feral cat trap immediately became a litter box of jokes about feral dogs, etc. I had to use a scooper to pull out relevant info that got buried. Lots of newbies aren't going to bother.

Add to that a Tavern that looks like the Wild West and contains the personal blog of a bitter divorcé, and that it's a mystery who's even in charge. Is it Robyn? Justin? J-P? Some black-hatted boogie-man? The Collective? Luka?!?

The only consistent moderation has been to add to the list of dirty words like "gay". Do you recall when we weren't allowed to say "screw" either? You can't talk about a Washita stone without 'cheating'. Taunton's emphasis on wielding clumsy moral authority while the nuts and bolts are ignored builds disdain for the administrators a little at a time.

The forums have been like this for years. If the objective is to make money and isn't being met, as a business person i would either figure out how to MAKE it happen or drop them altogether. I certainly wouldn't blame the willing participants for my lack of leadership and inattention to their suggestions for improvement. I wouldn't throw crockery every few months as a morale-building technique before trying better software and consistent moderation.

I will add that the problems of the forums don't occur in a vacuum. I've elsewhere related my story of having four editors over two years mangle and lose my original pics for an article i submitted. At one point i offered to mutually withdraw from the contract so i could sell it elsewhere, but they refused.

FWW is trotting out a book of 102 pieces of furniture reruns. Taunton used to put out Biennial Design Books of hundreds of pieces of glorious furniture, all layperson-submitted material, that were the height of woodworker porn and still some of my most prized resources.

Then there is Quality Control. Here's a bit of an email i received recently from a woodworking friend and a former publisher in his own right who used Taunton plans to build a bench:

I sent in a fairly detailed critique of the plans for the bench along with the following photo which is almost the same view as the cover photo, but no response to my email even though I had told the editor to expect it. There were some errors in the plans I bought from them as well as some suggestions for improving the project plans. Later I found out from the designer (Russ Jensen) that he had not even seen the plans, only the printed article which also had a couple of errors. Makes me wonder about that outfit.

Here are two reviews on Toolmonger.com of their Index CD for FWW that show how they are alienating customers continually:

1. Mike D Says:
September 16th, 2008 at 1:19 pm

Maybe it’s me, but charging $20 for a simple index, not actual articles, seems like a slap in the face to people who have been buying the magazine over the years. Most of the magazines I subscribe to that have archival quality, have a website with a free index either online or downloadable as a pdf.
And considering the index is out of date as soon as the next issue comes out makes the $20 cost even more outlandish.
2. Jerad Says:
September 17th, 2008 at 5:42 am

I agree with Mike. Not to sound too snarky, but wouldn’t a simple search feature on their website be a much more reasonable solution? If they do want to sell discs, they should look at examples like Rolling Stone for comparison. I can go to Amazon now and buy 4 DVDs with full page-by-page archives of every one of their issues from 1967 to 2007 for $32. That’s a better deal.

We all know that dissatisfied customers will spread your name even faster that satisfied ones. I came to Taunton an ardent devotee of the publications and leave disenchanted in all respects.

Taunton is dealing with symptoms instead of engaging in basic hygiene, and the problem is merely most obvious in the forums. If you grew your orchard like they've grown their forums, you'd have small, wormy fruit and a corresponding bottom line. Would you go cut down a few trees as examples to the others to shape up or would you put the resources into making it profitable? If i were as tone-deaf to my customers as Taunton has been, i would still be working for my daily bread as someone else's employee.

This is actually a parting giveaway to show that i'm not oblivious to Taunton's business concerns while i'm also illustrating that Taunton's problems with personnel and with making money with the forums and in general are within Taunton's power to fix. Some two-bit posters in a hidden folder have been booted in an act of frustration that will serve no beneficial purpose to their bottom line.

Likewise, this forum has languished for years, maintained as Luka's playpen out of the kindness of his friends. Luka and i have history so i expected such an outburst from him eventually, though even i'm surprised how little impulse management he has shown. I've no interest in feigning sincerity to get back to BT nor in exchanging moderators who go crazy with the change of seasons for one for whom that state is his natural condition. Dust thou art... <cue Eric shouting "Bravo!">

If anyone wants to be in touch, drop a line at cmilleratcybernet1dotcom. Mike, i especially loved swapping songs; i've sung more in the last few days than in ages.

Oh of all the money that e'er i had
I spent it in good company
And of all the harm that i ever did
Alas, it was to none but me
For all i've done
For want of wit
To memory now i can't recall
So fill to me the parting glass
Good-night and joy be with you all.